Start a kinship peer support group
We’ll support you at every step to start a kinship peer support group in your area. Start connecting kinship carers today.
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What is a peer support group?
Kinship peer support groups provide kinship carers with a safe space to talk about their experiences, to make connections and build relationships with other kinship carers.
They are run by kinship carers who volunteer to set up a group in their area to support other kinship carers at any stage of their kinship journey. Peer support groups can be online, in-person or a mix of both.
About the Kinship peer support service
Kinship carers told us they wanted more support, more access to expert advice and information and more opportunities to connect with each other.
Thanks to funding by the Department for Education, we’re supporting kinship carers across England to set up thriving peer support groups in their local area or online.
We have a Peer Support Group Library, which is a free resource library open to everyone. Here you’ll find all the information you need to set up your own peer support group.
How Kinship can support you
We understand the commitment it takes to set up a peer support group and we’ll help you at every stage.
First, check that there isn’t already a peer support group in your area.
If you live in England, we can offer you individual support through our peer support service, thanks to funding from the Department of Education. This means you will have a dedicated volunteer coordinator who will help you through the process – such as finding a venue, getting set up online and marketing your group to kinship carers in your local area.
If you live in Wales, you can use our peer support group library, which is packed full of practical tips and tools to get your group up and running.
You can set up a group that runs in person, an online group, or a mix of both. However you want to set up your group – we’re here to help you.
What does a volunteer Support Group Leader do?
If you’re setting up a group for other kinship carers, we call you a ‘Support Group Leader’. It sounds like a scary title but it’s just a way to make it easy to understand that you’d be the person coordinating the group.
Within your group, you can call yourself what you’d like! You could use different words, such as the group host, the group’s main contact person or the facilitator, to name a few. As your group grows, other people might want to help and have different roles and responsibilities within the group too.
Being the group leader might feel like a big thing. But by breaking it down, it’s all about what you are responsible for when starting and running a group.
Things like:
- deciding when and where you meet
- promoting the group and recruiting new members – you might lead this to get going, but others can support this over time
- making sure kinship carers who come feel welcome and supported – perhaps a call with them
- hosting the group meeting – making sure everyone has a chance to talk if they want to
- looking after those attending – understanding safeguarding and how to support in the best way
Find out more about the role of a Support Group Leader, by downloading our role description.
Register your interest and our team will contact you to arrange a quick chat where you can decide if setting up a peer support group is right for you. There’s no pressure to commit to setting one up.
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